In her car, Cassidy took a moment. She closed her eyes, rested her head against the steering wheel, and breathed deeply. The last time she’d been this nervous, it was her first day as an investigator. Five years later, she wasn’t exactly the most senior person in the department, but no one would call her green. In a way though, what Cassidy was facing now was worse than first-day jitters. This morning, Cassidy was getting a new partner. Her sixth in her career, a career she knew was on thin ice. To put it simply, people found her difficult to work with. Cassidy knew the partner she’d been assigned was her last chance. It had been spelled out, in the vague and uncertain terms that bureaucracy was so fond of, that if Cassidy couldn’t make it work with this final partner, she would make being fired from the only job she’d ever imagined wanting work instead.

There was no use dwelling. Cassidy would do her best to make a good impression on Special Investigator Ethan Mercer, but at the end of the day, what would be would be. She picked herself up from the steering wheel and connected her phone to the bluetooth radio in her little red four-door sedan. She pulled up her interstellar radio scanner app, clicked play, and started the drive to work. Normally, Cassidy payed a good deal of attention to interstellar radio. She was regularly one of the earliest listeners when new translations came out. She wished she could translate some herself, but Cassidy had always suspected her high school Spanish teacher had passed her out of pity rather than any recognition of ability.

There wasn’t anything too captivating in the feeds that day anyway. No space stations being taken over by those little black aliens that sort of reminded Cassidy of that one episode of that old sci-fi show with that creature on the wing of the plane, not in appearance but in concept. None of the ships that were in range of the radio satellites, orbiting Mars now with newer models making their way further into the solar system, had encountered those strange bug aliens that took over corpses. Space seemed to have a million dangers. While Cassidy was fascinated by this relatively new technology that provided a window into the cosmos and proved humanity was not alone, she had no real interest in going to space. She figured there was plenty going on on Earth. Humans didn’t need interstellar problems on top of their own. Of course, Cassidy was not naive enough to believe that meant space would leave Earth alone in the future, or that Earth had been left alone in the past.

Cassidy shook her head at herself as she parked, turning off her car and cutting off the rather mundane discussions of trade routes and spacial anomalies. Even if it had been a slow day for interstellar radio, maybe listening to it on the way to work wasn’t the best idea. Cassidy’s theories, that maybe some of the cases they worked had otherworldly origins, hadn’t made her the most popular around the office. She didn’t think, given what humanity knew about the cosmos, that her theories should be considered that far-fetched. To be completely fair, Cassidy had only been right about it a handful of times, and she didn’t get proof any of them, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t perfectly willing to arrest human suspects when humans proved guilty.

Oh, who was she kidding, anyway? Even if Cassidy stopped listening to interstellar radio on the way to work, this knowledge of a vaster universe would still be a part of the fabric of her mind. All she would accomplish would be disrupting her routine, which might actually make her more likely to break a record and piss off this new partner badly enough to demand a transfer on the first day.

Clearly, Cassidy had had more than enough time with her own thoughts. One of these days, when she was confident enough she wouldn’t be away from home for too long and someone could pop in to feed it for her, she’d have to get a cat or something. For the moment she settled for getting out of her car, throwing her canvas bag over her shoulder and locking her door in one smooth motion. Cassidy was running early, as usual, so she had no doubt she would make it to the office she would share with her new partner first. She would have time to put together a morning beverage in the break room, go over Special Investigator Ethan Mercer’s file one last time, see if they had a new case, and generally get her footing before the song and dance of trying to impress him began.

It wasn’t meant to be, though. When Cassidy reached her office, she had no doubt the man already standing in it was Ethan Mercer. The picture in the file didn’t do him justice, but she recognized him. After all, she’d already read his file twice. Cassidy was not a small woman, standing at around 5’8” with broad shoulders and ample arms and thighs. Despite that, she almost felt small standing near this man. He had to be at least 6’1” if not 6’2”. His powder blue dress shirt, tucked almost neatly into black pants, was rolled up to the elbows, revealing not unimpressively muscled forearms. His matching black jacket was tossed haphazardly over what was now his chair, and his dark, almost black purple and grey striped tie wasn’t tightened quite enough to give the impression it was doing its job. His black, rectangular-framed glasses just barely clung to his nose. He was looking down at something on his desk.

A mess. He was looking down at a mess. Coffee was spilled across the desk that was now Ethan’s. An extra laptop had been hastily thrown on Cassidy’s desk, and the box of tissues she usually kept had been ransacked. A border of soggy tissues kept the mess from spilling onto her desk where the backs of the two desks met, but coffee was slowly dripping off the side.

Cassidy moved into the room properly, and Ethan’s head shot up at the noise. His facial expression, in spite of the chiseled cut of his features, was all innocent puppy caught chewing on the couch. His grey eyes, almost the color of the moon, widened comically even as his eyebrows pinched together. “I am so, so sorry. This is not the first impression I wanted to make.”

Though she would never show it, inwardly Cassidy was delighted by Ethan’s fuck up. It wasn’t like she wanted the man to fail, and later she would probably feel guilty for her current joy, but this made things feel a little more even between them. All morning, Cassidy had been worrying about how she was going to make a good first impression. This made things so, so much easier.

“Don’t worry about it.” Cassidy entered the room with quick strides, a smooth economy of motion, and dropped her bag in her desk chair before opening one of her drawers. She pulled out a roll of paper towels and tossed them to Ethan.

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He fumbled for a moment, then caught them. “Oh, thanks!”

“Seriously, no problem.” Cassidy picked her bag back up so she could take her seat and begin logging into her computer. “We’ve all had one of those mornings and those files were digital well before they were printed. You haven’t done any harm.”

“I guess you’re right.” Some tension dropped out of Ethan’s shoulders, making him look slightly less broad, though that wasn’t saying much. “Still, thanks.” He turned his attention back to the mess, finished cleaning it up, then faced Cassidy with a wide, bright smile and held his hand out to shake. “Ethan Mercer.”

“Cassidy Caraway.” She met him with a firm handshake.

Ethan picked up a second paper takeaway cup Cassidy hadn’t noticed initially with the commotion she’d walked in on and placed it on her desk. “This one’s for you. I’m gonna go grab some coffee for myself from the break room if you don’t mind?” At her light nod, Ethan headed out. “Be right back!”

Cassidy stared at the little cup, wondering what to do with it. Not drinking coffee wasn’t the biggest factor in her being the odd one out at the office, but it certainly made the list. Bringing her coffee was a nice opening gesture. If she was positive it would be a one time thing, Cassidy would at least pretend to drink it out of politeness. Most stimulants made her vision go a little wonky, a fact her doctor attributed to her occasional migraines, so actually drinking it would be out of the question, and she didn’t want Ethan to waste time or money bringing her coffee in the future.

She reached out and took the cup, figuring it could at least warm her hands while she decided what to do, and was surprised to find a tag from a tea bag dangling from under the lid. She examined it. Apple Cinnamon. Her favorite. She brought the cup to her nose for a quick sniff. Judging by the strength of the cinnamon smell, it was almost ready.

“I have a timer for that on my phone,” Ethan informed her as he rejoined her in their office. He sat down and reached across their desks, depositing one of the little creamers people tended to smuggle from the diner across the street after lunch breaks in front of her. “I also brought you that.”

If she poured it in and stirred, her tea would be exactly how she liked it, which is what she did when the timer on Ethan’s phone went off. Cassidy took her first sip and fixed her new partner with a wary smile. “I was kind of hoping you hadn’t heard much about me, but clearly that’s not the case.”

Ethan’s brow scrunched up, and he practically oozed what seemed like earnest concern. “Why would you say that?”

Cassidy’s wary smile turned lightly bemused, and her left eyebrow twitched as if trying to rise before she smoothed the rest of her expression again. “Well, if you don’t know, I’m not so sure I want to tell you.”

Ethan laughed, ringing and clear. Cassidy’s eyes briefly flickered to their open door, worried about causing a disturbance to the rest of the office, but there didn’t seem to be any movement. “Fair enough!” Ethan took back his computer and opened it up, finding one of the files he spilled his coffee on. “If it makes up for anything, I brought you a case.”

Cassidy heard the little “bee-doop” sound that indicated a message had come through on the intranet system. She clicked the link, bringing the file Ethan was looking at up on her own computer. “What have we got?”

Ethan grimaced, his first truly serious expression. “Honestly, I’m not sure if it should win me any points. An 8-year-old girl grabbed an axe and murdered her entire family, parents and a younger brother.”

“Oh.” Something like that was always hard to hear no matter how long you had been working to solve violent crimes. Ethan felt no judgement as Cassidy took a moment to collect herself from that introduction alone. She took a long sip of her tea to cover the emotion. “It seems pretty open and shut.”

“Should be,” Ethan acknowledged, but they both knew there still needed to be a thorough investigation to figure out how best to help the girl and any living extended family she may have. “I figured we could pull up the relevant information today and head up to New Hampshire tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Cassidy confirmed. “You have a biology background, right?”

“That’s right,” Ethan agreed. “I got my undergraduate degree in biology, then a masters in forensic science, and then my masters in law enforcement. I also worked as an emergency medical responder through all 6 years of grad school.”

“Alright, good to know,” Cassidy replied amiably, despite already knowing the information. “Do you want to reach out to the M.E. and see if you can get access to any information about a history of mental illness? I’ll reach out to local law enforcement to let them know we’re coming and contact the school to see if there’s anything they can tell us about the girl.”

“Alright, sounds like a good plan.”

The pair worked in companionable near-silence for the rest of the day, making the necessary calls and emails, pulling the appropriate files, and setting meetings for the coming days of the investigation. Occasionally they would speak, confirming a detail or agreeing on scheduling, but for the most part they stayed focused. At lunch time, Ethan headed to the break room to get the leftover pasta he’d packed from dinner the previous night, and Cassidy ran across the street to the diner at least half their coworkers frequented to grab a burger and fries. When they got back from lunch, they only had a few hours left. Cassidy focused her attention on printing relevant documents and making up a succinct report of the information so far, while Ethan made sure they had tickets for the high speed train as early as possible, accommodations as nearby as possible, and a rental car.

“We’ll have to take a train to the capitol, Concord, and then drive up another two hours to reach the town itself,” Ethan explained. “It’s a pretty rural area, so there’s nowhere to stay in the town itself. We have to go a couple towns over, about a 20 minute drive, to get a little bed and breakfast type place. Are you okay with sharing a room? It has two beds. I wouldn’t ask if I could avoid it, but it has two beds, and there aren’t a lot of options. If you’re uncomfortable, I could see if-“

“It’s fine.” Cassidy cut Ethan off before he could keep working himself up about a non-issue. “We’re good. Would you mind putting the rental car in my name? I usually prefer driving to being the passenger.”

“Oh, sure, no problem.” Ethan was too busy being relieved she didn’t care about the one room situation to be bothered by much else.

Knowing that they were going to be away from home for a few days at least, both partners made sure to wrap up their necessary tasks by quitting time. As they headed for the door, Ethan hesitated a moment before deciding to get Cassidy’s attention. “Uhm, Investigator Caraway?”

“Yeah?” she acknowledged, turning to give him her full attention. Her head tilted like a focused cat, and Ethan could swear her eyes shifted from more brownish to more blueish. “What’s up?”

“I do know,” Ethan confessed. He hoped his face didn’t look as red as it felt hot, up to the tips of his ears. “Why you might have hoped I didn’t know much about you, I mean. But I requested the assignment. So please don’t worry.”

“Oh.” Her tone was surprised, and her posture became slightly defensive. “Uhm. Okay. Thanks.”

“Sure,” Ethan agreed, not sure what else to say. He didn’t love the way the air had turned thick with tension, but he had no idea how to fix it. Maybe he shouldn’t have opened his mouth in the first place.

They both went home.